Peanut butter is a cohesive, comminuted mixture of ground peanut particles suspended in liquid peanut oil. Peanut butter is prepared by roasting, blanching and grinding shelled peanuts to form a peanut paste. During the grinding step, the cellular structure of the peanuts is ruptured releasing the peanut oil in which the pulverized peanut particles become suspended. A stabilizing agent such as a high melting point fat is generally added to the peanut paste to prevent separation of the phases. An emulsifying agent, a sweetening agent, and salt may also be added to the peanut paste.
The protein content of peanut butter is from about 26% to about 30% making peanut butter a nutritious food. The oil or fat content of peanut butter, however, is from about 48% to about 53% mitigating the nutritional value of peanut butter. Accordingly, low-fat peanut butters having the flavor and texture of conventional peanut butters are desirable.
Attempts to make low-fat peanut butter have generally focused on removing a portion of the peanut oil found in peanuts and replacing the oil with a low-fat and low calorie filler substitute. These low-calorie peanut butter compositions have generally been unsatisfactory because the peanut oil removal step tends to also remove a portion of the flavor components from the peanut butter resulting in a peanut butter with poor taste. In addition, the low-fat filler substitutes generally do not provide the texture and consistency properties of conventional peanut butter.
Removing peanut oil from peanut butter results in a peanut butter lacking flavor and adding low-fat filler substitutes results in a peanut butter with poor texture and consistency. Thus it would be commercially advantageous to provide a reduced-fat peanut butter composition which has the flavor and consistency of conventional peanut butter.